Ice/beverage dispensers are often contained in a single cabinet, in an upper portion of which is an ice retaining hopper and in a lower portion of which is a cold plate. The cold plate is cooled by a volume of ice that is gravity delivered from a lower opening in the hopper into the lower portion of the cabinet and onto and in heat exchange contact with the cold plate. The cold plate provides for heat exchange cooling of beverage liquids flowed through tubing circuits embedded in the cold plate, which beverage liquids include mixing or diluent liquids such as carbonated water and noncarbonated or plain water. In situations where a cold plate is used in conjunction with a post-mix ice/beverage dispenser, sources of carbonated water, plain water and beverage syrup concentrate are connected to the cold plate to be cooled as they are passed through the cold plate circuits and are then delivered through tubing to post-mix beverage dispensing valves. A carbonated or noncarbonated drink is produced when the cooled carbonated or plain water and a syrup concentrate are subsequently mixed together and dispensed from a dispensing valve.
An ice/beverage dispenser customarily has four or more, usually eight or more, post-mix beverage dispensing valves for dispensing various beverages. In the past, each post-mix valve was plumbed for and dedicated to dispensing either carbonated or non-carbonated drinks and the use of several dispensing valves on a beverage dispenser enabled a variety of different drinks to be offered. When a post-mix valve is activated to dispense a selected drink, a syrup concentrate for the drink is mixed with carbonated water when a carbonated drink is to be dispensed or with plain water when a non-carbonated drink is to be dispensed.
Because customers' tastes change, owners of beverage dispensers are often required to change the supplies of concentrate syrup and carbonated and plain water delivered to dispensing valves in order to provide new drink flavors or, perhaps, to enable the dispensing of the same drink flavor from more than one dispensing valve of the same beverage dispenser. While in the past each valve was dedicated to dispensing either a carbonated or a non-carbonated drink, today there is desire to have the flexibility to be able to change between dispensing carbonated drinks, such as soda pop, and noncarbonated drinks, such as juice and sports beverages with the same valve. Historically, each beverage dispensing valve was coupled to a pair of beverage liquid delivery lines, one a delivery line for concentrate syrup flavoring and the other a delivery line for either carbonated or noncarbonated water, with each line leading back to a source of the particular beverage liquid. As a result, reconfiguring a valve to dispense a different beverage required the tedious and often expensive task of reconfiguring the beverage delivery lines through disconnection and appropriate reconnection of the lines, which lines were often relatively inaccessible and access to which required partial disassembly of the beverage dispenser.
To alleviate the problem of reconfiguring individual beverage liquid delivery lines to post-mix valves of a beverage dispenser, mounting assemblies for post-mix dispensing valves have been used. Such mounting assemblies provide two outlets for a beverage dispensing valve, one for delivering concentrate beverage syrup to the valve and the other for delivering either carbonated or noncarbonated water. The mounting assemblies conventionally have two inlets, one for being connected to a supply of concentrate beverage syrup and the other for being connected to a supply of either carbonated or plain water. Because only one inlet is provided for both carbonated and plain water, to change between carbonated and noncarbonated drinks dispensed by a valve still requires disassembly of the beverage dispenser to access the carbonated and noncarbonated water sources and a subsequent resetting of pressure and flow rates when the dispenser is reassembled.
Accordingly, there is a need for a beverage liquid supply arrangement for post-mix beverage dispensing valves of a beverage dispenser that enables quick, convenient and inexpensive interchange of supply of either carbonated or noncarbonated water to any particular beverage dispensing valve, without need to disassemble the beverage dispenser and reset pressures and flow rates.
There also is a need for such a beverage liquid supply arrangement that can conveniently and inexpensively be configured for use with a dispenser having any particular number of beverage dispensing valves.